


Delicious

by Glassdarkly



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Female Protagonist, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 18:50:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2662616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glassdarkly/pseuds/Glassdarkly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Spike goes hunting his third Slayer, Drusilla does some hunting of her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Delicious

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Dru Turns Ten Livejournal community in September 2007. 
> 
> Substantially re-written in November 2014.

The rat-faced human was afraid. 

Never taking his eyes off her, he wiped the glass in his hand with a piece of rag so dirty that Mamma wouldn’t even have kept it for blacking the range. 

Fear was a lovely smell – one of her favourites – but not his, all mingled with the odours of beer and salami. 

She thought of telling him so, but his twitching rat nose made her feel queasy, so she decided to ignore him.

Instead, she hummed a tune to herself while the tips of her fingers ghosted along the counter-top, circling around the stains on the pitted surface. 

Each stain told a story and if she listened hard she would hear them. Who sat here, what they drank.

How they died. 

Who killed them.

“Miss? Ma’am, I mean? What can I get you?” 

The rat man was squeaking at her now. It was only polite to answer him. 

“Do you have children?” 

She liked children. _Their_ fear always tasted sweet.

Or maybe of milk. 

“N-no,” the rat man faltered. “No ma’am. Confirmed bachelor, that’s me.” 

He was trying to smile at her, showing all his little rat teeth.

She tutted at him. “I meant to eat, silly.”

“Oh.”

He set the glass down on the counter and she bent to look into its clouded surface. There were faces there – not _her_ face, of course, since Angelus ripped her reflection from her, but definitely faces. 

Maybe if she looked carefully she could make out who they were? 

But the rat-man was still talking. “Not kids as such, no ma’am, but I’ve had no complaints about the O Pos. Tell you what – have one on the house.”

 _And then go – please!_

She heard the words he didn’t dare say ringing inside her head like little leaden bells. 

She laughed. 

“Don't mind if I do, dearie.” 

His hand was shaking as he poured blood into the glass. 

"Will it be delicious?" she asked him. It didn't smell it.

He gave her another of his scared rat-teeth grins.

"Sure."

The blood stank of disappointment, as if it had belonged to someone who’d died miserable. She shut her eyes and inhaled, put one finger into the glass to stir the contents, then licked it. 

The rat man was staring at her as if he couldn’t look away. Had she become a snake without realising it? She swayed a little to see if his eyes would follow her, and they did. 

She held his eyes and put on her sternest face.

"It's not delicious at all. Disappointing, dearie. Very disappointing indeed."

The rat man looked dismayed, and she thought how easy it would be to slash his thick neck and let all the nasty stuff inside come bubbling out. 

But not tonight. 

Taking another sip from the glass, she looked around. This was not a nice place. The voices shouldn't have brought her here.

She picked up the hem of her long white dress, in case the floor made it dirty. 

White for sickness. White for death.

White for bones mouldering in the ground.

When she was better from what ailed her, she would wear purple and red, and even black if the mood took her. 

Black for ravens. Black for crows.

Black for the eyes of skulls.

Black for royalty.

She was his black queen, Spike always said. When she took her throne again, she should dress the part.

She gave the rat-man a polite little curtsey, even though he didn't deserve it for offering treats, then tricking her, and walked away. 

Not many customers here tonight, but then they had other things to do. 

Such nice people. All gone out hunting with Spike. He'd kill himself another Slayer if he could.

The thought of the Slayer made her feel uneasy. She’d never hated the others her little boy had set his heart on, but already she hated this one. 

The others had shattered like glass but this one hid a core of iron inside her brittle shell.

And she smelt like a thief. 

Spike had better watch his pockets in case the nasty Slayer stole his valuables.

But he wouldn't die tonight, so the voices told her. If he had, she would have cried and been sad. 

So sad that she would have had to make herself another white knight to replace him as soon as possible. 

A lady _should_ have a knight to carry her favours, shouldn't she?

She sipped from the glass again, but the blood was stale, and she had no appetite. With a sigh of distress, she sat down in one of the booths and leaned her head against the seat-back. 

At once, she shot bolt upright again as a familiar scent filled her nostrils. 

_He'd_ rested his head in this same place only recently. Then he'd groaned and put his head in his hands.

Then he'd snapped at the rat man and given him money. 

Angelus was here.

Dear darling Daddy.

She buried her face in the soft faux-leather to muffle her laughter. Then she apologised to the voices. Of course they had a good reason for bringing her to this horrid place. She was a naughty girl ever to doubt them.

Even now Angelus and Spike were busy getting re-acquainted, sniffing at each other and baring their fangs, like dogs about to quarrel over a bone.

Just like the good old days.

She let her laughter spill out, then pushed her glass off the edge of the table and watched it spiral down, down, shattering into jagged, starry fragments. 

"Hey!" 

The rat man clapped a hand over his mouth when she swung around in his direction. He shrank back as she came towards him, but she wasn't cross with him anymore. 

How could she be when they three were soon to be a family again? 

She blew the rat man a goodbye kiss. Time to go home and get ready for the fun and frolics.

This was going to be delicious after all.


End file.
